I agree. Semantics, hair splitting, vehicles, dogs, whatever.
He’s trying to make a point with this thread to be safe with firearms. Simple enough to me.

I rarely have a chamber loaded weapon in my truck but if I do, it's always in the front with me, on safety and pointed down into floorboard. I will not handle a gun while driving, ever. Dad had a guy in early 1970s, blow his forefinger off in my Dad's Blazer while hunting mules out near Terlingua, TX. Dad was driving and Ed was in passenger seat with his chambered .300 Win Mag. They were traveling hilltops looking for a mulie buck for Ed. Anyhow they see a buck close by and before my Dad could park the Blazer, an overly exuberant Ed is reaching for his .300 Win Mag with is offhand over the muzzle. The shot goes off and my Dad is nearly deafened by the sound. Turns out Ed has blown off his offhand forefinger putting a shot through the glove compartment, engine area and stopping at front bumper. My Dad yells at Ed, "What in he'll were you thinking" and Ed responds, wiggling about 1/2" of the remaining forefinger, "I can still move it". Needless to say that ended my Dad's hunting relationship with Ed and really any relationship. Inside of 2 years, a mentally disturbed Ed murdered his wife daughter, mother n law and himself in a police chase near El Paso if I recall correctly.

When I was in Wyoming a guy was driving down the road and his rifle fell over and shot him in the leg.

In his fit of anger, he slams the rifle down on the floor board and it shoots him in the chest and kills him.

Friend of my Father had a rifle in the gun rack of his truck and when he was trying to get out of the rack, it went off and he had a nice hole in the cab.

Exactly, 1,000,000% right!!!!!!!!!!

Need heavier triggers with longer pull when you're gonna let your dog walk on it if's loaded. Also, when letting the dog walk on it don't walk in front of it. Oh the dog needs to use the safety.

Some dogs don't like their owners.

My dog is all over the place and on top of everything in the pickup. Guns typically go back in the truck unloaded these days because I definitely see how he could set one off on accident.

If I have a loaded gun in truck and I use that term loosely I’m at the lease. And when I say loaded, I mean all rounds are under the bolt not in the chamber

Nobody seems to be mentioning THE TYPE OF FIREARM. This has always been sort of a pet peeve with me so give me some space to explain. Take a Colt Government with a grip safety. You have to simultaneously depress the trigger and the grip safety or the gun will not fire (unless some malfunction occurs). In any event pretty safe. A few years ago I bought a beat up 16 gauge side by side Stevens shotgun. If you gave it a bad rap the thing would fire. If you looked at the sear nose/notch engagement- totally worn and rounded. I dovetailed in a new notch and bought new sears, etc. and rebuilt the thing. As it was, if loaded and in the vehicle and you get in an accident and the vehicle is wacked-the gun could have fired. Many years ago, as a teenager, I had an old Winchester 94 that you unloaded by feeding rounds in and out the action. I obviously did this without a finger on the trigger and I was alone BUT I WAS near to my vehicle, muzzle pointed away and the gun fired. I couldn't believe it until I realized that the cuff of my coat had inadvertantly snagged on the trigger. The next day I traded that rifle in for a Marlin 336 that had a cross bolt safety- you could unload with the safety on.
The whole point is, yeah- all guns are potentially dangerous but some have better safety features that others. The old Mausers I believe had an oval firing pin so in the safe position the oval pin rotated and could not move forward through the bolt. It seems to me in the Hunter Safety courses, a lot more ought to be said on these things.
Also, when I was a kid a lot of folks still hunted and used lever actions and didn't have a round in the chamber, you cycled in a round while raising the gun to fire. Once tree stand hunting got going, everyone chambered a round and relied on the gun's safety. Nothing wrong with that but I always unload before lowering a gun out of a tree stand, etc. If you hunt with a group- everyone unloads before getting back to the vehicle, etc.

I have a loaded gun in the jeep, one by the front door (our of sight) one by my bed, in the living room, 3 or 4 in the shop, I am 82, not going to be a scuffle ect, two steps and I am loaded

Same

The dog was a pit bull and did it on purpose.

Gun loaded, safety off, finger on the trigger, that's how I roll

Loaded guns and idiots don't mix.

I keep a loaded handgun in both my truck and the wife's car. However, they're not handled near as often as the rifles I take to the woods throughout the year. It's just common sense that the more a loaded firearm is handled, the greater the potential for mental mistakes.

Let's face it, some guys just get a rush from carrying a loaded firearm, while others put greater value in safety and peace of mind.

I sleep with a pillow under my gun.

I agree with you Free. A tragedy due to complacency that didn’t have to happen. Cutting corners on gun safety for convenience is all to common. It is something you can get away with until the time you don’t. The consequences can be fatal.
I have spent a lifetime hunting with dogs. The number one reason break action shotguns are so popular among bird hunters is the relative ease of taking them out of battery when working with gundogs by opening the action and the easy visual confirmation they are out of battery by all present.
I lease out a good bit of property to deer hunters. One is a somewhat storied MLD in east texas predominantly hunted by residents of the DFW metroplex. Some years ago they had an accidental shooting in camp. 7mag out the wall of one camp from inside, through the wall of the adjacent camp, striking one of the occupants. Luckily there was a nurse present in camp. The fellow got quick medical attention and recovered. As bad as that is, it could have ended much worse. Complacent attitudes toward gun safety in the name of convenience and laziness is far more common and accepted by some than many want to readily admit.
Good post Dan.

False…9mm in console loaded, .45 under the seat, loaded. .308 during deer season, always loaded. 12 gauge always racked. This is like saying not to set a knife out to cut a steak because you might cut your finger.

Have a friend that has owned a transmission shop for 30 + years, at least every other year a truck would come in with a round in the torque converter from where they reached for there rifle while hunting and all but one said it was on safety when i seen the big buck and grabbed it, Most of them would say my wife's going to kill me when she finds out!!

Texas Dan...


Also Texas Dan...

Well, he's a mOron, so there's that.

lol

I've had them loaded before but never chambered if unattended.